UNISONActive is an unofficial blog produced by UNISON activists for UNISON activists. Bringing news, briefings and events from a progressive left perspective.

Sunday 23 September 2012

Bhopal Survivors Tour arrives in North West

Throughout September two leading members of the Bhopal Survivors movement have been touring Britain and Ireland to raise support for their international campaign for justice. On Friday, Safreen Khan (Children Against Dow-Carbide) and Balkrishna Namdev (Destitute Pensioners' Front) addressed a meeting at UNISON’s regional office in Manchester:
http://www.bhopal.org/2012/08/2012-bhopal-survivors-tour-of-united-kingdom-and-ireland/
The visitors were welcomed by UNISON Regional Secretary Kevan Nelson who praised the courage and determination of the Bhopal survivors and referred to the recent breakthrough in the long running campaign for justice after the 1989 Hillsborough disaster as an example of what can be achieved against powerful vested interests.

Safreen reported on the struggle of the youth of Bhopal to sustain the campaign against Dow and bring pressure to bear on the Indian Government including two 500km marches on Delhi. Namdev spoke of the political indifference shown of the political elite and corporations to the victims of the 1984 catastrophe at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal and contrasted the £12bn compensation paid by BP in the wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill (when 11 workers died) to the paltry 470m dollars received by Bhopal victims families in 1989. Over 500,000 were affected by the disaster. Subsequently, Dow has stated that this compensation was ’fair and more than adequate.’

Today at 2PM the film BHOPAL is being shown at Liverpool John Moores University’s Centre for the Study of Crime, Criminalisation and Social Exclusion:
http://bhopalsurvivorstourljmu.eventbrite.com/